Once at a professional conference, I met a psychologist who had been a pro football player for a couple of weeks. Drove while impaired, got injuries that ended his career. We see this kind of thing all the time, right? Athletes who lose their careers due to substance abuse, violence, the yips, you name it.
The thing is, this stuff is very treatable, if the therapist happens to know what they’re doing. Yes, it’s specialized and high level – it’s not just “talk to a counselor.” But it’s not esoteric, and it is well supported by the research.
Back in the early 90s when I went to get trained in EMDR, part of the training was practicing on each other. One of my colleagues, when in the client role in a practice session, addressed his bowling slump. That night in his bowling league, he bowled a perfect game: twelve straight strikes. Won the pot, paid for the training :^)
And this story is — to jump from one sport to another — par for the course. I mean, not everyone who does EMDR goes on to bowl a perfect game that night. But it is common for EMDR (and similar methods) to lead to resolution of these kinds of problems.
I’m a psychologist and I specialize in performance enhancement work. Some clients are actors, athletes, executives… some are regular people with jobs and families, some are struggling students, some are people in trouble with the law. It’s actually all the same treatment approach: Motivational work, avoiding high risk situations, coping skills for those situations you can’t avoid, and healing trauma & loss memories (using EMDR or similar), which makes everything else go better.
We can often get it done in just a few days, intensive format. That’s important, because some problems need to be resolved quickly. Here are a couple of case examples – disguised, of course – of athletes who did an intensive to help them overcome an obstacle to their career.
Performance Issue
“Mickie” was the starting center on a leading college basketball team. She hoped to play professionally and was considered a good prospect, but for her foul shooting. It was so bad that players on the other team would foul her on purpose, to stop her team’s offense, force her to shoot (and likely miss) the foul shots, with the other team having a good chance of rebounding and gaining possession of the ball. This made Mickie unplayable in close games. Of course she got all kinds of coaching, and practiced foul shooting, a lot. But in the games she kept choking and missing those shots.
In the off season her coach referred her to a sports psychologist, who referred her in turn to an intensive. The therapist and Mickie were able to track down the probable source of Mickie choking during foul shooting: a cluster of childhood experiences in which her older brothers – who taught her basketball, and included her – bullied and teased her when she took foul shots. The intensive treatment, featuring EMDR, was completed in only two days. In the following season, Mickie was able to hit her foul shots at a respectable rate, no longer had to be benched in the close games, and was able to help her team make it to the quarter-finals in the national tournament. She did get drafted, and had a chance to play at the highest level.
Off-Court (or Off-Field) Issue
“Ollie” was a professional ball player who was caught on video being violent towards his spouse. He was suspended from league play pending the outcome of an investigation. Meanwhile, Ollie was determined to do whatever he could to salvage both his career and his marriage. He moved out of his family home, enrolled in a batterer’s group, and found a therapist. The therapist, while meeting with him weekly, also referred him for an intensive.
Ollie’s intensive was scheduled for five full days, which were needed. Ollie’s history included extensive exposure to violence as a child and teen. He had largely managed his emotions by devoting himself to sport, but sometimes the hurt and anger became too much, and then he would get drunk and/or violent. In the intensive he worked with Flash and PC, until the old memories of violence no longer caused him pain, and just felt like part of the past. The final day of the intensive was focused on self management skills.
Ollie maintained communication with his spouse both during and after the intensive, to share what he was working on, and how it was going. He apologized – again – and said that he was doing his best to become a better person, who would no longer hurt others. And now he was walking the talk; that is, he was actually becoming that better person. This was evident in the way he behaved, for example, he remained calm in situations in which he would have previously become agitated. His spouse felt safer with him and after a few weeks invited him to move back home.
It is unclear to what extent his efforts may have influenced the outcome of the league’s investigation; he did have to serve a suspension. But he improved his marriage, and substantially reduced his risk of ever having to be suspended again.
Athletes have the same range of problems that other people have. High-level athletes are, however, in a unique situation: their problems may be in the public eye, and the personal stakes can be high. An athlete who under-performs, or who has serious emotional or behavioral problems, risks squandering their dreams, not to mention significant wealth. So every time I see one of those problems, I can’t help but tell the TV: “You could solve this, you know?” I wish more people did know. Intensive trauma-focused therapy isn’t easy, but it’s worth it: their career could survive and thrive.
[Note: The title references/riffs on a quote by legendary baseball manager Yogi Berra: “Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical.”]
